The Analyst; Or, A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician: Wherein it is Examined Whether the Object, Principles, and Inferences of the Modern Analysis are More Distinctly Conceived, Or More Evidently Deduced, Than Religious Mysteries and Points of Faith

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Seite 55 - He knew not the shape of any thing, nor any one thing from another, however different in shape, or magnitude, but upon being told what things were, whose form he before knew from feeling, he would carefully observe, that he might know them again; but having too many objects to learn at once, he forgot many of them: and (as he said) at first he learned to know, and again forgot a thousand things in a day.

Seite 55 - When he first saw, he was so far from making any judgment about distances, that he thought all objects whatever touched his eyes, as he expressed it, as what he felt did his skin; and thought no objects so agreeable as those which were smooth and regular, though he could form no judgment of their shape, or guess what it was in any object that was pleasing to him. He knew not the shape of...

Seite 29 - A great Number of arbitrary Signs, various and apposite, do constitute a Language. If such arbitrary Connexion be instituted by Men, it is an artificial Language; if by the Author of Nature, it is a Natural Language. Infinitely various are the Modifications of Light and Sound, whence they are each capable of supplying an endless Variety of Signs, and, accordingly, have been each employed to form Languages; the one by the arbitrary Appointment of Mankind, the other by that of God himself.

Seite 3 - ... the privilege of a Free-thinker; and take the liberty to inquire into the object, principles, and method of demonstration admitted by the mathematicians of the present age, with the same freedom that you presume to treat the principles and mysteries of Religion; to the end that all men may see what right you have to lead, or what encouragement others have to follow you.

Seite 56 - AT firft, he could bear but very little fight, and the things he faw, he thought extremely large; but upon feeing things larger, thofe firft feen he conceived lefs, never being able to imagine any lines beyond the bounds he faw ; the room he was in he faid he knew to be but part of the houfe, yet he could not conceive that the whole houfe could look bigger.

Seite 3 - And it must be owned that when the definitions are clear; when the postulata cannot be refused, nor the axioms denied; when from the distinct contemplation and comparison of figures, their properties are derived, by a perpetual well-connected chain of consequences, the objects being still kept in view, and the attention ever fixed upon them; there is acquired...

Seite 29 - And, as sounds suggest other things, so characters suggest other sounds ; and, in general,, all signs suggest the things signified, there being no idea which may not offer to the mind another idea which hath been frequently joined with it. In certain cases a sign may suggest its correlate as an image, in others as an effect, in others as a cause. But, where there is no such relation of similitude or causality, nor any necessary...

Seite 29 - If such arbitrary connexion be instituted by men, it is an artificial Language ; if by the Author of Nature, it is a Natural Language. Infinitely various are the modifications of light and sound, whence they are each capable of supplying an endless variety of signs, and, accordingly, have been each employed to form languages; the one by the arbitrary appointment of mankind, the other by that of God Himself.

Seite 2 - I shall claim the privilege of a Free-thinker ; and take the liberty to inquire into the object, principles, and method of demonstration admitted by the mathematicians of the present age, with the same freedom that you presume to treat the principles and mysteries of Religion...

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The Analyst; Or, A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician: Wherein it is Examined Whether the Object, Principles, and Inferences of the Modern Analysis are More Distinctly Conceived, Or More Evidently Deduced, Than Religious Mysteries and Points of FaithEighteenth century collections online